Every Heart a Doorway

Home. That's what this book is about. Nancy is the newest student at a boarding school of wayward children - chosen ones that slipped through secret doorways and found other worlds. They found where they belonged, only to go tumbling back to a reality that doesn't understand what they experienced and what they need.

Nancy's parents think she's anorexic, that she was kidnapped by someone who did such terrible things to her that she had to make a fairytale to cope. But Nancy was in the Halls of the Dead, a world where stillness and peace is the ultimate virtue. The years she spent there - only a few months in reality - taught her to slow her heartbeat and breath to a crawl, to survive on the barest amount of food. At the school, the students categorize the worlds they traveled to by direction - Logic, Nonsense, Wicked and Virtue - but to Nancy her world was neither good or evil. All that mattered was that it was hers.

I loved this book. It was simultaneously sweet and cruel. While not every world described was a “fairy” world, Seanan McGuire's writing balances on that line of otherworldly and painfully real so artfully. The characters are charming, funny and endearing. Even though Nancy's defining characteristic is her stillness and ability to disappear, she's very much a well-defined and strong character that one can admire. Aside from her, Jack was by far my favorite. She has a vicious sense of wit that had me snickering to myself repeatedly, not to mention an undeniable sense of style.

Despite this book's wistful premise and short length, it doesn't pull any punches. The murder mystery is a gruesome one, complete with some gory scenes and a very clinical approach to body disposal. But more than anything I found the very premise of the story just heartbreaking. How do you cope with knowing that the perfect world for you is out there but no one believes it exists, and no one will help you get back there? How does someone deal with that loss?

A lot of credit should be given to the queer representation in this book - Nancy is asexual, and Kade is a transboy. It is astoundingly refreshing to see characters that come from a different point of view, and there's an uncanny connection with the queer experience and the fairy one. That said, this is a short book, and I was a little surprised by how much time Nancy spent explaining what asexual meant to her new acquaintances. Kade's story seemed to fall a little more organically. Ostracization and isolation is of course a big theme with this book, so Nancy, Kade and a few others make up a band of misfits within a school of misfits for a multitude of reasons.

Every Heart a Doorway is a complete, tight, beautifully done story. It would have been fine as a stand alone, but I'm thrilled that there are going to be two more. Better yet, the second book is going to be about Jack and Jill and their frightening world of vampires and mad scientists. And have you seen the cover? You should see the cover. And then read this book.